


pizza rolls

by furuyawn



Series: junk food [1]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Age Difference, Aged up characters, Drinking, M/M, also implied rukitatsuhime, chad is deaf and has a cochlear implant hence the signing bits, dont let the drinking tag get u down this is a happy fic, sorry this is weird its only my second ever fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-12
Updated: 2016-02-12
Packaged: 2018-05-19 22:01:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5982265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/furuyawn/pseuds/furuyawn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a story of personal growth and understanding through the course of over 10 years<br/>or, chad comes to terms with his uncomfortable crush on ichigo's dad</p>
            </blockquote>





	pizza rolls

**Author's Note:**

> it all happened because i remembered this stupid post i made:  
> http://pygmynoodles.tumblr.com/post/125048371917
> 
> im so sorry

It starts in middle school, when Chad stays over at Ichigo’s house for the first time. It’s around two in the morning and they'd snuck into the kitchen to binge on pizza rolls when Isshin walks in, bleary-eyed, having been woken up by the beeping of the microwave and wearing those stupid heart-patterned pajama pants.

“Ichigo. What the fuck,” he deadpans hoarsely, and Ichigo shrugs and offers him a weak apology and a pizza roll. He takes three, much to Ichigo’s chagrin, and shambles back upstairs. Chad sits there in embarrassment.

“Why didn’t you tell me your dad was home?” he signs.

“The clinic is connected to the house so he’s literally always home.” Ichigo signs back.

“Oh.” Chad feels a surge of heat wash over his face, and he’s unsure where the shame he’s feeling is coming from.

—

It continues in his first year of high school, when the twins find Chad on the road outside the clinic after being hit by a motorcycle and Isshin carries him inside. He only vaguely knows who Chad is, but that doesn’t stop him from lugging 250 pounds of dead weight into his home. Chad insists that he’s fine, says that he’s more concerned about the driver but when he collapses after trying to leave he’s secretly a bit happy that he has a reason to stay for even a bit longer.

He leaves shortly after he realizes this.

—

He finds out Isshin was a shinigami and that piques his curiosity.

—

In his third year of high school, Chad has finally fallen into a group of people he believed he could truly understand and relate to because he’s a human with weird hollow powers and they were humans with weird hollow powers, but it turns out that everything was a lie and he was a pawn in a game played by someone he thought he could trust.

Tsukishima has rewritten every single one of his memories to revolve around him; has completely destroyed any trace of the people that made him who he is; has turned him against Ichigo, the most important person in his life, and made him break his longstanding promise to protect everything that was important to him.

He's at his breaking point and he cannot cope so Isshin knocks him out and once again carries him to safety. He complains about it but he does it anyway because he is a good person and a doctor and he cares about his son’s friends.

Even after the ordeal and Chad is stable Isshin continues to care for him and Orihime, because thats what good people do.

Isshin is a good person and Chad files that away.

—

When Chad and Orihime finally reunite with Ichigo during the 1,000 year blood war Ichigo tells them what Isshin said, about how his mother was a quincy and how he was the captain of the 10th squad and countless other things but mostly what Chad picks up on is how two people from completely different worlds can make things work and create something new.

He feels that heat from years ago creep back onto his cheeks when he finally understands what it is he’s felt about Isshin for so long.

—

He’s 25 now and the war is long over and they made it home, not without layers of physical and emotional scarring but they came back and that’s the important thing.

Chad stays in Karakura and tries to make a honest living but it’s hard in a world full of hearing people and he struggles to make ends meet on his meager salary. So when he gets an end-of-year bonus he decides to treat himself. He, Orihime and Tatsuki - who moved to the next town over and share an apartment (sometimes with Rukia when she visits) - go out drinking. The girls sing shitty karaoke renditions of their favorite pop songs and have a goddamn blast while Chad sits at the bar and dicks around on his phone.

Someone sits right next to him even though there are like three other open seats so he looks up from the screen to side-eye the intruder and blanches when he realizes it’s Isshin.

He begins to sign but remembers that Isshin doesn’t understand so he speaks instead.

“I. Haven’t seen you in a while,” he says like it’s not as big of a deal as he feels it is.

“And somehow in that time you managed to grow even taller,” Isshin laughs and it rumbles in Chad’s chest the way his voice always has and he feels warm but he’s not sure if it’s the three shots of fireball (that Tatsuki dared him to down almost immediately after they arrived) finally working its way into his system or something else entirely.

They continue making small talk, discussing how Ichigo’s been doing with med school and if Yuzu and Karin have decided on colleges yet among other things until the topic of the war comes up and things start to get strained so Chad orders a rum and coke and he pretends that makes things easier (it’s hard getting a buzz when you’re approximately the size of a tree).

Eventually they get onto the topic of Chad’s love life and boy is that exactly the opposite of what he wants to talk about with Isshin, so he tries and fails to change the subject onto something less awkward until he finally lets slip that he’s like super gay and Isshin has the decency to pretend to act surprised but like come on, Chad is at a karaoke bar with his gay best friend and one of her girlfriends and also Ichigo accidentally told him like years ago. Chad makes a mental note to kick him the next time he sees him.

Orihime notices them talking and comes over to say hello and ask about the twins and Chad is relieved for a moment because he thinks maybe Isshin will drop the topic but then Tatsuki is dragging Orihime away to go dance and now they’re alone again and the topic is far from dropped.

Now Isshin is asking if he’s single and Chad is internally screaming. “It’s hard enough finding other gay guys, let alone ones that I can talk to about my… circumstances,” he offers.

“Yeah, that kind of comes with the territory; part of the reason why I never got remarried,” Isshin says and takes a sip of the second beer he ordered somewhere during the course of their conversation. He swallows and grins, “Plenty of one-night stands, though.”

Chad chokes on his drink and begins to cough uncontrollably. He was not expecting that. Isshin slaps him on the back a couple of times and then he says “that happened to one of the guys I was with, too” and Chad wonders if he is having a terrible fever dream of some sort but then Isshin gives him another light pat on the back and a wink and he decides that it must be.

Red-faced and teary-eyed Chad lets out a final weak cough and now the drinks are definitely starting to get to him because he’s seriously debating on asking Isshin if he wants to take this conversation elsewhere, but then Orihime approaches them holding Tatsuki’s hand and lets them know that they’re heading home because it’s one in the morning and Tatsuki is wasted. So they say their goodbyes after Chad makes sure that Orihime doesn’t need help walking Tatsuki out to the cab (she doesn’t).

Chad checks his phone and sees that it is indeed 1 am and remembers that it was one in the morning when he first met Isshin and with that memory all of the feelings he’s kept hidden come rushing back and he doesnt want to let this chance slip by without giving it a try. So he goes for it.

“So uh. It’s kinda late and my place is close, did you want to come over and grab some food?” he tries to ask nonchalantly but he’s pretty sure his voice cracked.

Isshin gives a lopsided little smile that makes Chad’s heart flutter and places a hand on his thigh. “Do you have pizza rolls?”


End file.
